Between 1996 and 1998 I put down a few songs in a rather spur of the moment on my 4-track recorder. Lyrics were made up basically on the spot while the tape was rolling. The sounds are pretty lo-fi and the clanging of metal in some of the songs were spoons, pots and pans that made up our primitive percussion. Jim Seagroves helped out on the racket kitchen percussion sounds as well as general chanting or making a nuisance out of everything.

Back then Jim and I called ourselves “the Gidds”. Basically, it was our little gang name growing up. We listened to NWA in high school and wanted to be white thugs. We had our own language and mockerized the neighborhood. Some of the songs we speak in German.

I play the acoustic and electric guitar, sitar and sing the songs. My brother Bob Guittard played bass and guitar on a few tracks as well as beat on a hand drum. Warren Barry played the organ on Once Around the Moon as well as added to the weirdness.

I used a Dr. Groove Drum machine. I hope you like these weird songs. At the time of the recording I was listening to a lot of Beck’s Odelay. Please enjoy and make comments.

If you haven’t heard of Jamendo.com then I guess you are really really out of the loop and not aware of the free music phenomenon. I suggest you get over there, immediately and get in on it. As of today, there are 15,287 albums posted there for free downloading. Did you catch me? Free!

Most of the artists are not known, including me. There is some really great quality stuff out there. I recommend the following artists:

Brad Sucks

Rancho Relaxo

Blancheneige

The Zombie Drivers

Jamison Young

The Golden Dawn

I’m tellin’ ya, get in on this scene. I give you free music; you give me review. It’s “Quid Pro Quo”, ya dig? A free win-win situation. I’d be honored if you’d do this for me. Just sign up, it is free. It’s extremely cool.

My stuff is along the lines of folk-rock, psychedelic, and experimental. I have posted three albums and if you like the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Byrds you would probably like me.

Here’s my first album I did in 2002 called “California Daze.”

Album description

California Daze was recorded in Hollywood, California by Jim Guittard on his 4-track recorder and later mixed with Adobe Audition 2.0. The songs pay tribute to the birth of the Neo-Psychedelic scene that emerged beginning in 2000 in Silverlake, California with groups such as the Beachwood Sparks, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Quarter After, smallstone, the Warlocks, the Tyde, and the Belle Isle.

Jim Guittard played the shaker, drum machine, and sang all lead and background vocals and had the help of friend Vladimir Maskov for bass. Brian McKay engineered the recording of the Beach the acoustic version. Guittard also played all lead and rhythm guitars. The song Beach is co-written by Jim Guittard and Dominic Campanella of the Quarter After.

The “Swing Tune” and “Jazz Tune” are instrumentals written by Jim while attending the Musicians Institute from 1999 to 2000. Jim plays the lead guitar with session bassist and drummer. On the rhythm guitar is a guy from Brazil named Reginaldo. He was a student with Jim at the school. You can hear the teacher, “Mr. Lupo Groinig” giving a critique after the instrumentals end.

I’m putting up the mp3 source tracks that I recorded to make many of my songs so that anyone can remix or do whatever they want to it. I found a cool website where people can remix other people’s music.
So here’s the site where you can download my source tracks for free of course and create your own thing out of it: ccmixter

I’d be very happy to see what anyone makes out of it. Beware, some of the tracks have sound leakage. I did the best I could to clean it up. I’ll be posting more songs later. Let me know if you have one you’d like to remix that is not up there.

“Busted In Bulgaria” is a collection of songs that document living in a strange land. During a two year period, the tracks were all recorded in a raw stripped down way on a laptop using Adobe Audition 2.0. The songs range from psychedelic, shoegaze, folk-rock to experimental. The album is full of sound effects to add a creative vibe. Some songs even have the actual sound from students in the Bulgarian school where I have taught English in Pernik. I also sing a handful of songs in the Bulgarian language.

“California Daze” was recorded in Hollywood, California around 2002 by me on my 4-track recorder and later mixed with Adobe Audition 2.0. The songs pay tribute to the birth of the Neo-Psychedelic scene that emerged beginning in 2000 in Silverlake, California with groups such as the Beachwood Sparks, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Quarter After, smallstone, the Warlocks, the Tyde, and the Belle Isle.

I play the shaker, drum machine, and sing all lead and background vocals with the help of friend Vladimir Maskov for bass. Brian McKay engineered the recording of the Beach the acoustic version. I also play all lead and rhythm guitars. The song Beach is co-written by myself and Dominic Campanella of the Quarter After.

The “Swing Tune” and “Jazz Tune” are instrumentals I wrote while attending the Musicians Institute from 1999 to 2000. Here I play the lead guitar with session bassist and drummer. On the rhythm guitar is a guy from Brazil named Reginaldo. He was a student with Jim at the school. You can hear the teacher, “Mr. Lupo Groinig” giving a critique after the instrumentals end.

The Blog Documenting the Life Of Jim Guittard

4th Generation Musician and 2nd Generation Writer.
Disclaimer:
MP3s on this site are for sampling purposes only. If you are an artist or represent an artist featured on this site and would like a file removed write me at jfguittard (at) juno (dot) com.